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-   -   PPL dreams down the drain? (https://www.pprune.org/private-flying/615951-ppl-dreams-down-drain.html)

CaseyG 1st Dec 2018 11:12

PPL dreams down the drain?
 
Hi Folks,

Newbie here, desperate to learn to fly…

Searched through the board but could not find any threads to answer my question.

I started flying last year, currently 50+ hours on various SEP aircraft.
Now on final stages of my studies for EASA PPL Theory and planning on taking the exam in February.

Although my home base is Austria, I travel a lot within Europe for business and am unable to stay longer than a couple of days or weeks in a certain location, therefore unable to continue flight training with a fixed base flight school.

Already contacted some ATOs throughout Europe and asked whether they could arrange training windows (like 4-5 consecutive days) with an aircraft equipped with G1000 and position it wherever I happen to be - money being no object.
More than half did not respond, those who did either could not understand the request or simply said nope.

Am I chasing my own tail here??

Thanks in advance for your comments...

turbopropmike 1st Dec 2018 14:26

money being no object--> why not just create a declared training organization and hire an instructor to act as head of training, buy an aircraft that you could have all for yourself after training and make the instructor come to your location for those 4, 5 days training windows. It may be come cheaper than asking a school to do it.

Pilot DAR 1st Dec 2018 14:49

Welcome to PPRuNe Casey, What turbopropmike has said is just what I was thinking to respond. Flying schools may have reasons why catering to your specific needs is not convenient, but if you own the plane, it does what you want it to - and you own it after training is complete, so you have a familiar aircraft to fly.

piperboy84 1st Dec 2018 15:42

If money is no object and you’re hell-bent on getting your PPL, then you need to prioritise. Call your customers, business associates and employees and tell then they need to get on with things themselves for a month while you pursue your dream. Nobody is irreplaceable (Richard Nixon is proof of that) .You never know having them step up without you things may go even better.

Life is for living, and there are 2 things you will never see. An old guy on his deathbed with his family around him and as he draws his dying breath exclaims “I wish I’d went into the office more on Saturday mornings” nor will you see his hearse going down the road carrying his coffin to the graveyard towing a tri-axle Ifor Williams with all his **** in it.

Genghis the Engineer 1st Dec 2018 16:36

Europe is not that big a place, with a superb domestic airline network.

Why not just for your 4-5 day periods routinely travel *to* the flying school. Particularly if it's at or close to a reasonably major airport, this should be no issue at-all. Also you'll be learning at a known airport, in known landscape, in a consistent aeroplane. Learning in a different country each week does not sound even faintly sensible for learning progression.

Also, in my experience, people trying to juggle learning with lots of other things at once, seldom learn very well. Dedicated periods of time where you quite deliberately avoid work issues will almost certainly provide you with a far better learning experience.

I entirely understand the schools who said "nope" as they probably share my view that this is absolutely no way to learn to fly. Those who didn't reply are probably a combination of people who just thought you were winding them up, and those who (sadly too commonly in this industry) just are incapable of answering any faintly difficult questions - there are plenty who behave like that in flying training.

Also being blunt, if you are incapable of dedicating time to learning to fly, and maintaining your flying skills - you'll never be a safe pilot. Hire somebody else to fly you around Europe - if they're an instructor, and such people are easy to hire, you can keep flying under their "instruction", without actually endangering anybody.

G

Sam Rutherford 2nd Dec 2018 08:11

Pinching some of the advice from above, but perhaps simplifying it. Simply let all of your clients know that you'll not be available from the 20 December until 20 January - reschedule anything already planned. They'll survive (unless you're a heart surgeon perhaps!).

Go to Florida (an EASA approved school), finish off your exams and the (small amount) flying you still need. In any aircraft - get the base licence first, then spend time adding G1000 or whatever to it later.

Given your current experience, getting this done in a month will be very easy (there are many who have gone from zero to complete in a month this way). If you finish early, either come home early or fly off to the Bahamas for a week!

ChickenHouse 2nd Dec 2018 09:00

Hi Casey,

taking lessons on an ATO aircraft of a 'not-yours' ATO has two barriers. First, the operational handbook the ATO has been approved on. I know of none covering this situation. So, you are outside SOP and they simply don't know how to handle that. Second, insurance of the ATO does have a word to this and they either don't know how to cope with it.

The only way I could think of would be to enroll at each ATO you plan to fly with. I don't know whether this is even allowed on current EASA regulations to be enrolled in more than one ATO? You may have to de-enroll each time from your current ATO, transfer all papers to the respective superior authorities of the next ATO - and this for every time changing place. The ATOs would have to synchronize their SOP and training syllabus, synchronize on medical and other issues, track your training progress in a way to keep their record audit-able andsoon ...

As was mentioned before - get time off, cancel appointments and do it at your home ATO is much more efficient and you save the pain of talking to different official concrete heads.


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